Tag Archives: Overconsumption

Preaching is not so easy as many think. Trying to convince people of certain matters is even more difficult.

Those who believeGod created the world do know that they have to take responsibility in a wise way for the creation of the Most High, which we only have in loan. Christians do have no excuse, the should all they can to keep our universe as best as possible, taking care not polluting it and not wasting the precious material we our given by the Most High.

When we see how our world is evolving it is high time Christians do something for the environment and get as many people involved in the protection of the weaker and those who have no voice humans listen to (animals and plants)

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To remember

Robert White = development economics and planning consultant based in London = considers need for increased public support of emissions mitigation policies + encourages everyone to play their part.

1: need to get out there + engage.
Evangelising =/= insular group.
Church goers + environmental movements > become comfortable > attendance being more about socialising than sharing faith

2: engaging often better at personal level than a preachy one
Demonstrations + Facebook posts = not good enough

3: practice what we preach + demonstrate our conviction through our day to day actions
People more inspired to act <= see similar person to themselves actually living out what they say
Take the plank out your own eye

Winning voters’ minds = difficult = important area that we can all make a difference

Robert White is a development economics and planning consultant based in London. In this post he considers the need for increased public support of emissions mitigation policies and encourages everyone to play their part.

We can’t all be ‘young heroes’, but everybody can inspire change. To make a difference you don’t need to fly to Paris, work for a green start-up, or get teargassed by the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité.

Cover of one of the books of the Robert L. May story by Maxton Publishers, Inc. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Like in our country he had also real Christmas holidays, and had real Christmas programs at school. When we do hear our grand children and see what is done at schools for the Christmas holiday we do not see such nice activities like we had in school. Though, Today there are more people stressing that this is the Season of the Year, and several Christians are shouting that Christmas should be the Reason of the Season. But when they want to celebrate the birth of Christ, not much seems to remind people to that birth of the Jewish rabbi who is oursaviour. On the streets and in the shops the so called Christmas songs do not really mention Jesus Christ but go on about reindeer, Santa(s), jingle bells and present, though not that special present or precious gift you could call Jesus Christ. The winter-related songs celebrate the climatic season, with all its snow, dressing up for the cold, sleighing, etc. and with the years all the pagan elements came more and more to the forefront, new mythical characters created, defined, and popularised by these songs; “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Frosty the Snowman” both introduced by Gene Autry a year apart (1949 and 1950 respectively).

In the previous century we gathered and special presentations were offered to sing carols.

We would sing Christmas carols, which included biblical songs. The school would give the children song sheets that showed the words to those biblical songs. Teachers were free to talk to their classes about their church lives. {120714 – Christmas Of Simpler Times}

Today lots of teachers are not allowed to speak about their religious life. They are not allowed to talk about Jesus Christ being the saviour. church live and talks about God are in many schools not authorised any more.

The kids have also nothing to share about church life, because most of them never go to church or just have some periods of church activity to prepare them for the first and/or second communion. they are not really interested in anything to do with church or with religion. The talk of the day is the new smartphone or any other new electronic gadget, plus laughing with one or the other posting on Facebook. Television lost grace in the hand of our grandchildren. The present generation does not watch so much television as we did or do, but have their eyes focused on the computer screen, watching al sorts of postings or games.

We didn’t have cable tv or dish types, so our selection was limited to traditional network programming. The programs were family oriented and were not restricted to “church and state” limitations.The Cleaver family went to church and Sunday School. Andy, Barney, Aunt Bea, Opie, and Gomer were shown in their church, even when Gomer might fall asleep and snore during the “Reverend’s” sermons.
The Christmas programs that were produced and shown by ABC, NBC, and CBS did not hide the fact that “Jesus was the reason for the season.” Television hosts did not omit “Jesus” from their discussions when they were talking about Christmas. Jesus was truly “God with us” during those programs. {120714 – Christmas Of Simpler Times}

Jesus nor God are the subject of this season. It is time that those who call themselves Christian and find that this should be a time to think about Christ Jesus, perhaps should do better to have others thinking about that special man who was sent by God for a specific reason.

In Belgium we listened, behind frosted windows, to songs like the one of Frank Sinatra who sung about the songs for you and me, but were told that this was all about that heathen character the Americans loved so much, because their country had become slave of consumption. Today we in Europe are not better off. Most people are slave of money and consumption. As in the previous article told, they even get so much stress that we have already time spend in the media about that ‘Christmas stress‘.

Of the time when every one falls in love there is not so much to see. In some American writings we hear that it is now fashionable to have a divorce around Christmas. Many have new years dreams of having some extramarital adventures with some delicious unknown and some even think it can be good fun to have some extra sex with somebody of their own gender. Those same gender relations are also promoted extra in this time of year. This week for example we had on television some gays who prepared meals for each other and talked every episode about the ‘Christmas kitsch’.

Merry Christmas (Bing Crosby album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the 1950ies and 1960ies from the States we got Andy Williams and Bing Crosby who be the must haves and must hears at the Winter holiday season. You may wonder what glow it is when snow would appear these days. But even the snow has given it up and Winter does not want to let see her face. Bing Crosby reminded people about what happened in Bethlehem and asked people to remember it not just in this particular season but the whole year through.

Just as we cannot benefit from a wrapped gift under the Christmas tree until we open it, so gratitude can be seen as our way of opening the gift of God’s love intended by all the small and big positive events of our lives

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One of the Biggest Christmas hits in several families for years

“White christmas” by Bing Crosby (1942) Original

Later he made a more fluent, faster version, which I like more

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O Little Town Of Bethlehem – Bing Crosby

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Bing Crosby “The Secret Of Christmas”

“The Secret Of Christmas” was written by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for Bing Crosby, and was first performed by Bing in the 1959 film, ‘Say One For Me’. Bing recorded “The Secret Of Christmas” with an arrangement by Frank DeVol for a single that year released by Columbia Records. Bing recorded the song again in 1964 for the album 12 Songs Of Christmas with Fred Waring and His Orchestra.

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It may well be that after World War II our families had to overcome the shocks of the Great War and the last atrocity which showed the cruelty of man and made it so much more important to focus on the better soul of mankind. Perhaps it was truly a much simpler time of Christmas in our nation’s not too distant history.

On the trash of the wealthy the poor try to survive – People who earn their living by collecting and sorting garbage and selling them for recycling, Payatas, Manila, Philippines.

Less… is still enough!

The facts.
The collective wealth of all the Belgian people is more than 2.000 billion euro (De Tijd). The 10 richest families together own almost half of all that wealth (Knack). Yearly in Europe – and you read it correctly – we throw away 590.000.000 ( five hundred and ninety million) tons of food. 20 % of all young people between 13 and 20 years of age regularly think about suicide (Enquiry National Youth Service).

Are you still following?
Is each one of us not a prisoner of conventions, caught in materialthings and that what is on the surface? Are the energy we invest in production and the effort we make in order to consume, not out of proportion?

In the middle of progressive thinking the question arises about what proof we need to realise that some thing or other is getting out of hand? To put it in a different way: what else has to happen to us before we come to an insight ? Usually it is difficult to admit that to have ‘more’ and ‘property’ are addictive. With (a little) less it would become quite difficult for some. For the poor without doubt, because they always live with ‘less’.

Professions without borders
This is a televsion programme in which professional people from here go and cooperate with colleagues in far away countries. At the end of their trip, filled with experiences, each one of them nearly always has the same reaction:

“Do we really realise what a good life we have in Belgium”?

Confronted with shortage and poverty, ‘people that have a lot’ get to know the inner side of ‘people with less’. The encounter is very emotional and touching. It is ‘enrichment’ that they receive from these ‘poor’ people. Who helps who?

Someone said it as follows:

“Since I live with less, I do not feel the shortage, but rather have the experience of ‘more'”.

London is now a city of contradictions. It is the richest part of the country, but also its most unequal, with the highest levels of poverty. It is home to some of the world’s most expensive real estate, but has the highest proportion of renters of any area of the country, many of whom are locked out of home ownership. It has some of the world’s best teaching hospitals, but suffers from profound health inequalities.

But for parents in Antwerp, a city on high alert since the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris and police raids on Belgian jihadists, Wednesday’s ruling by judges there may never explain why their two sporty teenagers, with no Muslim heritage, abandoned comfortable homes to take up arms in the Middle East.

Workers and labor unions said on Wednesday they had been angered by austerity measures being imposed by Belgium’s new center-right government, which include a two-year extension to the age of retirement, cuts in spending on healthcare and delays to the indexation of wages in relation to prices.

Between 8,000 and 10,000 people attended the demonstration, local media reported, where protesters held banners reading “No Poverty” and fired smoke flares at a square in central Brussels.

Belgium’s four-party coalition government under Prime Minister Charles Michel, which took office on October 11, has also pledged to cut corporation tax from 33 percent to 25 percent.

Poverty in Germany reaches a record high (counterinformation.wordpress.com)
“Poverty in Germany has not only reached a new record high, it has also threatened the country with disintegration into disparate regions.” Thus begins the annual poverty report of the German Federation of Welfare Associations.

Although the economy has grown slightly and unemployment is relatively low, the poverty rate in Germany has increased; it has been rising almost continuously since 2006 and now stands at 15.5 percent. This means that about 12.5 million adults exist on less than €845 per month as unmarried persons or less than €1,873 in a family with two children.

Many foreigners escape fines on Belgian roads (deredactie.be)
Xpats.com’s Robyn Boyle says that at present more often than not it’s only motorists from France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg that have to pay a fine, if they commit a traffic offence in Belgium.

A Wealth Tax for California? (sandiegofreepress.org)
California has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s main poverty measure, 16.8 percent of all Californians and 23.5 percent of the state’s children lived in poverty in 2013. Yet it also has the most billionaires in the country: 111. The state’s 33,900 millionaire taxpayers (just .2 percent of the state’s taxpayers) have combined incomes of $104 billion. According to the California Budget Project, California has the seventh widest income gap between rich and poor among the 50 states, ranking between Alabama and Texas.

Belgian coin spat awakens ghosts of Waterloo for the French (trib.com)
Belgium is looking to change a commemorative Waterloo coin to an unofficial value of 3 euros ($3.18) to avoid what it called opposition from France. Coining unofficial values do not need backing from other countries in the 19-nation eurozone.

Microcredit Today: The Shift from Lending to Savings (mint.com)
Increasingly, the world’s poor are able to securely borrow small amounts of money through microfinance institutes. This is proving to be an essential element of growth for poor or rural populations and their businesses.

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Lifestyle and Readers Digest Magazine founded by Marcus Ampe on the 26th of March 2014

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This site does not want to be a specific religious site, though now and then religious articles may be presented. The main interest on this site is about worldly matters, social affairs and the behaviour of human beings in this universe.
Our aim is to bring first articles about our responsibility in the progress of human relations and peace involvement.

Recent Posts on the other Lifestyle Magazine: Stepping Toes

The Jewish Museum of New York her latest core exhibition reveals a distance from Judaism indistinguishable from disregard, embarrassment, and disdain. Menachem Wecker’s essay on Scenes from the Collection, the latest permanent exhibition at the Jewish Museum of New York, talks about the city’s venerable 115-year-old Jewish Museum. Its collection of about 30,000 objects makes […]

Originally posted on Dear Kitty. Some blog: https://youtu.be/gQOBDCSQKbw This 10 April 2019 video says about itself: First-Ever Black Hole Image Released The Event Horizon Telescope captured an image of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. From USA Today today: It’s our first glimpse of one of the weirdest spectacles in…

Originally posted on Purplerays: ‘Tis hard for man to rouse his spirit up–It is the human creative agony,Though but to hold the heart an empty cup,Or tighten on the team the rigid rein.Many will rather lie among the slainThan creep through narrow ways the light to gain–Than wake the will, and be born bitterly. But…

Originally posted on Victors' Corner: WHAT TOLERANCE REALLY MEANS By Victor Uyanwanne 13/03/2015 I have always been interested in learning new words and I have usually made conscious effort towards achieving that aim. I remember way back in school when we were much younger when we used to keep “New Words and Meaning” notebooks as…

Thoughts by and a Look at the world by Marcus Ampe on: Marcus Ampe's Space

Environmental challenges are everywhere. There is an urgent need to stop biodiversity losses and to improve air, water and soil quality – to name but a few problem areas. Among examples of global environmental problems, the loss of bees is symbolic. Bees’ well-being and role as pollinators are significant for biodiversity. More than 50% of […]

Tackling the pollution challenge is vital to securing human well-being. It is a critical insurance policy for current and future generations, the fulfilment of whose rights depends on a healthy environment. Special attention must be paid to the needs of women, the poor and the disadvantaged, many of whom depend on well-functioning ecosystems for their […]

In the previous posting we saw that the water which comes out of the tap does not always have to be safe water. There are many souls who can tamper with it. But to make it clean drinkable water the providers have to make costs to clean the available water to make it as pure […]

Last year the media in Belgium had to bring warnings about the availability of water and requested people to use water scarcely. In February and March again a water alert went out, not about having to much water, like one would expect in those months by having the Spring Storms, but for having a too […]

From the unpublished material: 2019 January 01 Several countries may be afraid for water scarcity because of their population growth and higher temperatures and more droughts alternated with uncontrollable many devastating rainstorms. For Egypt for example, unless the current fertility rate of 3.47 changes by 2030, Egypt’s population is expected to grow from the current […]

Recent Posts: Belgian Ecclesia Brussel - Leuven

Today’s Thought ” … the earth will be shaken” (May 23) What place is named in the first and last books of the Bible – and in many in between? Yes, it’s Babylon, yet you may not recognize that it occurs in Genesis because it is translated in its Hebrew form of Babel. The account […]

Today’s Thought “The earth shall be full of …” (May 21) Today’s Isaiah chapter is that marvellous one which tells us of the time to come when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (11:9). The first part of the chapter is about the work […]

Today’s Thought “The people … in darkness have seen a great light” (May 19) What darkness covers our world today! Nearly all have given up looking for light; they have come to the conclusion that this life is all there is. They have come believe that they are the highest form of the animals, that […]

Today’s Thought “The whole earth is full of his glory” (May 16) It is impossible to meaningfully imagine the time when “the whole earth [will be] full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3). In one sense it is so today – for all the wonders of creation reflect the power and presence and glory of its […]

Today’s thought “If you are willing and obedient” (May 12) Today we started reading the wonderful prophecy of Isaiah. His time as a prophet of the Lord covered the reign of four kings, beginning with the reign of Uzziah who suffered leprosy as a punishment for becoming too proud in his later years and entering […]

Recent Posts by: Messiah For All

Jewish and Christian literature since the time of Yeshua or Jeshua have pointed to Genesis 3:15 as the first reference to the Messiah in the Torah. Genesis 3:15 NHEBJE I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his […]

The first human beings had chosen to go their own path. As any good father would do when his children had done something wrong, God punished them. But as a loving Father He in His great mercy promised for a solution and preserved David’s bloodline and the Messianic promise. Mankind had chosen Yet, we each […]

Do you know where in the Bible we find God‘s first promise to send the Messiah? The answer is foundational to our faith because within this first Messianic Prophecy mentioned in the Bible lies our fate of eternal separation from God. Too many christians limit the Bible to the second main part, the Messianic Writings, […]

The Divine Creator of heaven and earth wished not to leave the ones sent out of the Garden of Eden on their own. Though Adam and Eve rebelled against God, Him having expelled them, the Elohim was willing to stay close to them and to help there where He could or where it was appropriate […]

Those people coming from the first man and woman in a certain way got infected by the wrong choice these people made. God gave a free will to the human beings He created. He did not want them to go wrong or to have it bad, but because they objected to His ruling or His […]

Recent Posts: Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten

Tonight we come together for remembering what Jesus has done for each of us. During Jesus’s last days on earth, he new calamity was approaching. First he wanted to start the Festival of unleavened bread with his closest friends. He was very well aware of the meaning of that remembrance day every Jew had to […]

After God made a covenant with the People of Israel at Mount Sinai, Moses and the 70 leaders of Israel “saw God, and they ate and drank.” (Exodus 24:11) the did not literally saw God but felt His nearness. Every year Gods People also came together for a special meal, remembering how the Most High […]

Originally posted on Dear Kitty. Some blog: https://youtu.be/OPcYn4AiwQE This 2015 video from the USA says about itself: Candace Conti: Former Jehovah’s Witness Takes on Church over Sex Abuse Allegations Candace Conti says the church failed to protect her from a predatory pedophile, which Jehovah’s Witnesses has denied. Translated from Belgian daily De Standaard, 3 April…

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, has instructed elders in all 14,000 U.S. congregations but also in many other countries to avoid costly lawsuits by keeping cases of child abuse secret, even from law enforcement. And it has effectively silenced members, also in Belgium, who speak up about abuse through the tortuous practice of disfellowshipping and shunning.

Recent Posts by bible Scholars: Bijbelvorser = Bible Researcher

In the 15th century, the invention of the Gutenberg press meant that every literate Christian could read the Bible for themselves. This sowed the seeds for the Protestant reformation in which the self-interpreted Bible supplanted the church magisterium as the basic authority for Christian teaching. In the 21st century, the Internet and specifically the blogosphere and […]

Recent Posts at: Relating to God

In this world we see lots of religious groups and can find lots of people they believe in god/God. But we can wonder in which god or God they believe. The majority seems to believe in an other god than the God of the Bible. That god of the Holy Books is a Singular Spirit […]

When we are looking for some one for having a good or close relationship with, we can assure you the best one to have a good relationship with is the Most High Divine Creator God Who made it possible for you to be here in the first place. Having a relationship with Him is a […]

When wondered about a godhead and having come to the conclusion that there must be a Divine Creator or Supreme Being that surpasses all human and animal beings, we may question if it is possible for us to have a relationship with that Higher Being. What does it take to begin a relationship with God? […]

In March 2016 we created on Weebly a website to talk about man’s relationship with God. After we had done all the placing of pages and came to the contact form and placing of a Gravatar for the replies, we were brought to WordPress where we not only could choose a Gravatar but also got […]

Throughout history of mankind there have many groups of people who worshipped a triple deity (sometimes referred to as threefold, tripled, triplicate, tripartite, triune or triadic, or as a trinity). Those people who worshipped such tri-une god all claim they only worship one deity. Such deities that are worshipped as one are common throughout world mythology; the number three has a long history of mythical associations. Carl Jung considered the arrangement of deities into triplets an archetype in the history of religion. But the God of the Bible is clear about Which God has to be worshipped, not a more headed, be it an eightfold, three-une or bi-one god, but only the God of Abraham, Which is only One God of gods.

Find out in this article and its links how Jews, Christians and Muslims may have been influenced by the pagan gods and false teachings and how they have to separate them from such pagan teachings.

Recent Posts by: Immanuel Verbondskind - עמנואל קאָווענאַנט קינד

In response to the plea of persons who had become ritually impure through contact with a dead body, and could not, therefore, prepare the Passover offering on 14 Nisan , God established the 14th of Iyar as a “second Passover” (Pesach sheini) for anyone who was unable to bring the offering on its appointed time in the previous month.

Originally posted on Ahava: A Spiritual Experience in the Jewish Tradition: Be grateful. Count your blessings. Treat others well. Make every day count. Be kind. Take a full accounting of yourself. Be generous. Use gentle speech. Be compassionate. Remind yourself how to be a better person. Count the Omer… We are now in the period…

זֹאת תּוֹרַת אֲשֶׁר בּוֹ נֶגַע צָרָעַת . . . בְּטָהֳרָתוֹ: (ויקרא יד:לב) This is the law regarding someone suffering from a lesion of tzara’at . . . when he is to be purified. Leviticus 14:32 * If the person formerly afflicted with tzara’at could not afford the lambs required for his sacrifices, he could […]

These days of Spring-cleaning are very special and are the preparation for these coming very special days were we learn and remember two special liberations, one for a particular people and an other one for all who want to accept the liberation of the curse of death.

When having many questions an interesting blog to look at: their old and more recent Posts: Questiontime - Vragenuurtje

In this world we shall become even more confronted by people, be them politicians or church-leaders who would love to tell us than matters or different than we see it. Many of them will give the lie to make sure they would be more popular and receive more power. We must know that we shall […]

In the capitalist countries money often receives the first place of importance and many forget that love for each other is so much more a valuable asset for having a better life.
Several churches want to be popular and promise their followers excellent health with a lot of wealth, as long as they contribute richly to the church.
Abundance is on the inside. It’s a feeling first, an amount second.

In 2016 I started with writing articles on this website. In a certain way I had hoped I also would come to hear from other people what they would think about Some One or a divine Supreme Power behind the creation of the universe. The first year of this blog got to see 17 articles […]

Recent Posts: Unmasking anti Jehovah sites and people

Like Richard Dawkins despises religion we see many others reacting strongly against lovers of God, though they do not see zero purpose, zero usefulness, zero value, and zero reason in religion and question why anyone else should either.

In people saying God knows everything and claiming that Jesus would be God, adversaries of God receive an easy gainsaying danger because they can see how Jesus not at all knew everything, or in case he knows everything than it is clear that Jesus would not have told the truth on more than one occasion and as such would be a liar. The God of Jesus has man given the own possibility to choose what to believe and what to do, therefore it is up to man to make the right choice and to believe in the Only One true God or in the god man has created for himself or to please himself.

Trinitarian Christians claim to be monotheists thought their subgod Jesus has lesser qualities in common than many polytheists their main god and subgods. God may perhaps not to be found in perceivable attributes but when looking around and reading the Bible like the words are written in that book then it should not be so difficult and not so confusing to come and see Who God really is.

People can be irreligious, delusional or belonging to lovers of agnosticism, ignosticism, ietsism, scepticism, pantheism, atheism, strong or positive atheism, implicit atheism, and apatheism. After the rebellion of man God saw the world turning against Him but kept hoping in a good relationship with His creatures.

Recent Posts by Liza Borstlap on: heart prints

as ‘n mens ‘n storie wil skryfmoet jy weet wat jy doendaar is immers ‘n begin’n middelen ‘n eindeal wat ek nou voel is blind 19 januarie 2019God says you should stop being anxiousHe has been with you since the beginningHe is with you nowYou should surrender completelyand go into a posture of restthere is […]

Recent Posts at: SUCCESS INSPIRERS' WORLD

Peace, we yearn for.Peace, so hard to find.Where is peace gone?You are not easyTo come by,Yet, so near you are.You are in our hearts.We pray for peace;But only we humansCan generate peace.Are we going to do it?It is in our hearts.